Young children are very creative. It’s so much fun seeing what they can come up with if you just let them work on their own. But their craft supplies can really add up.
But sometimes you can make your own, free.
Kids love to make collages, for example. One of the easiest places to get materials can be in the junk mail you get every day. My son loves to be given a piece of junk mail to just sit around and cut into small pieces. It’s a bit messy, but keeps him entertained.
Using recycled items doesn’t completely negate the need to buy new supplies. Crayons, markers, glue and so forth are still a big part of most of the projects we do. But not having to buy a ton of other supplies is nice.
Here are some basic crafts you can do that go beyond junk mail collages:
Puzzle Piece Picture Frame
You need:
1 picture of child
poster paper
puzzle pieces
paint and paintbrushes (optional)
glue
magnetic strip
If the kids like, have them paint the puzzle pieces and allow to dry.
Cut the piece of poster paper to about an inch bigger than the picture, then glue the picture to the poster paper.
Have the kids glue the puzzle pieces around the picture to make the frame. Some like to do it in two layers to cover any gaps. Glue the magnetic strip to the back.
My daughter did this one at Christmas at her school, but I can see it as a use for those puzzles that have lost a piece or two. It’s a really easy way for kids to make a gift.
Cereal Box Puzzle
1 empty cereal box
Cut the front of the box off. Cut the front piece into a variety of shapes and give to child to put back together.
Paper Towel Tube Telescope
1 paper towel tube
black construction paper or black paint
yellow construction paper
tape (if using construction paper)
stickers or other decorations as preferred.
Cover the tube in black. On one end add a strip of yellow construction paper. Decorate as desired.
Bowling
10 plastic bottles (2 L or 20 oz work well)
decorating supplies
ball
sand (optional)
Decorate each bottle as desired. A very small amount of sand inside each bottle can make them more stable for setting up, but too much will make them too hard to knock over.
New Crayons for Old
several old crayons, all paper peeled off
cookie cutters
aluminum foil
Heat oven to 250 degrees F.
Wrap pieces of foil around cookie cutters, leaving tops open. Put foil over a cookie sheet and arrange the cookie cutters. Fill with old crayon pieces. Smaller pieces work better. Place in oven and cook for 10 minutes or until crayons have melted.
Technorati Tags: kids crafts, recycled art
With my husband hunting for a new job, suddenly our printer is going through ink. We’ve been low for a long time, but we finally managed to use up a couple cartridges.
Come to find out that a lot of Canon ink cartridges aren’t recycleable. Some are, but not the ones we use.
I gather that the ones Office Depot recycles have to have the print head in them. I guess that’s something of a plus, that disposing of my cartridges is not disposing of a print head every time. But I still hate seeing the plastic go to waste.
I even checked an ink refill site, and no go there either. Not that it would have helped this time, since we needed the ink today. But it would be nice to know.
All this is making me really glad we don’t do a lot of printing most of the time. I find it simpler to order my prints on those rare occasions I need a photo printed, so my printing needs come out to pretty rare occasions. The printer is only about 2 years old, so we obviously have no plans to replace it just because the cartridges won’t recycle. But it’s a thought for next time.
Technorati Tags: ink cartridge recycling, printing, printer
Perhaps not around the home, but recycling consistently can be really, really hard to do for a lot of people.
Just think about it. When you’re out and about, and need to dispose of something that you would recycle at home, how often is there a bin for it? In some areas that’s pretty unusual.
I know in my area things are good in some places. I sometimes see parks with bins for recycling glass or plastic bottles. Recycling bins for paper are less common, but considering that a lot of people have trouble keeping trash out of the other recycling bins, that makes a bit of sense to me. The criteria for recycleable paper can be stricter, so I kind of get it.
While I work at home, I also understand that you’re lucky if a business does more than paper.
One of the key things I do is try to avoid having to recycle when I’m out and about. If I can plan ahead, reusable makes much more sense than recyclable. In most situations I’d have to carry the item back home anyhow.
At home, if you have kids around you can teach them what can be easily recycled in your area, and have them responsible for at least a part of it. My kids know that paper goes in the recycle bin, as does metal, but plastic they have to ask since our area only recycles #1 and #2 plastics that are bottle-shaped. At 2 and 5, they’re both pretty good about it.
Away from home certainly takes more of a conscious effort for everyone involved. The best solution is for more locations to make the changes to make recycling easier. That means more recycle bins in parks and other places, and workplaces making it easier for their employees to recycle.
It also requires local governments to take more of a role. They need to make recycling more appealing than throwing things in the trash. That can mean giving a discount on trash service if you recycle as well. It may complicate the bookkeeping a little for whichever company handles waste disposal, but how else are we to encourage it?
Technorati Tags: recycling challenges
I spotted yet another article on how we need to make electronics more recycleable. This one was on Wired’s website. And it’s quite true. There’s so much innovation, but little interest in taking care of the mess created as people buy new electronics whether or not the old are any good.
Worse is how many break down in just a few years.
I think this is one of those topics we really can’t afford to let go of. Electronics are a major part of modern life, and I don’t expect or want them to go away, but we need to think more on the long term impact.
Technorati Tags: electronics recycling, old electronics, wired
Given my preference that old electronics be recycled, it was quite disappointing to read this article the other day on CNN about what really happens to most ‘recycled’ electronics. As they say, it’s not what you would expect. A lot of them just go to other countries, with the unusable parts still ending up in landfills.
I don’t really have a problem with usable electronics being reused. That’s a good thing. But mixing reusable with unusable and shipping the problem out is not acceptable.
Eight states so far have the right idea, in requiring manufacturers to recycle their old electronics. That needs to just be common practice. I’ve said before that I would love to see electronics stores be required to take the old electronics back. Nice, easy locations for people to get to. Perhaps a surcharge on purchases to help with the expense of doing this if necessary, and a rebate for returning products as a motivation.
It is important to note that companies like Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Sony now do take back their electronics for recycling. If they’re doing it right, this is a wonderful development.
As with any solution, it’s going to take time to get things going right. On the other hand, I do have an old, broken down Dell we hadn’t decided what to do with yet….
Technorati Tags: recycling, electronics recycling, environment, recycled electronics
